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RECEPTION PLANNED JAN. 3 TO HONOR ARTIST JOYCE MACRORIE

RECEPTION PLANNED JAN. 3 TO HONOR ARTIST JOYCE MACRORIE

January 02, 2014

Las Cruces artist Joyce T. Macrorie has donated 41 original works in oil and acrylic to the Permanent Collection of the Doña Ana County Government Center. A reception to acknowledge her generosity will be held from 1-3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3, on the second floor of the building, where her work is displayed.

Macrorie, 82, earned her master’s degree in fine art from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and began her career in painting and printmaking in the 1960s. She moved to Santa Fe in 1979, where she exhibited at the Muson, Waxlander and Running Ridge galleries. She also enjoyed a long tenure at the Joyce Petter Gallery in Saugatuck, MI.

In 2002, seeking contemplative quiet, she moved south to Las Cruces. Her current work incorporates a love of landscape with views from above.
Macrorie lives in an 1872 adobe home and attached gallery in the Mesquite Historic District of Las Cruces. Her print shop is in a new, adjacent building where etchings, woodcuts and monotypes are printed on a Tackach press.

She exhibits in invitational shows and in her own gallery, and continues to work six days a week.

In addition to Macrorie’s paintings, the permanent art collection within the Doña Ana County Government Center includes a series of historical photographs in the upstairs rotunda, as well as a spectacular photograph of the Organ Mountains donated in 2007 by Las Cruces artist R. Frederick Silva. The piece, titled “Fall Splendor,” hangs on a second floor east wall, adjacent to the main entrance to the administrative offices of the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners and the Office of the County Manager.

On permanent display downstairs is an original oil painting by Las Cruces artist Alice Terry titled ‘Heart of the Problem,’ which depicts a dry desert arroyo and represents the artist’s respect for the power of arroyos and the damage they can inflict to property during the summer Monsoon Season inherent to southern New Mexico.

Las Cruces artist Virginia Maria Romero has donated four signed prints to the Doña Ana County Government Center for permanent display. Those pieces are on display on the second floor near the elevators. Romero is a 20-year resident of Doña Ana County who has shown her work regionally, nationally and globally. The four pieces featured at the Doña Ana County Government Center are titled “Outcasts,” “Migration,” “Survival” and “Tonantzin.”

On semi-permanent display in the main lobby is one of New Mexico’s most famous painted ponies. Caballo de Las Cruces is covered with more than 2 million tiny, decorative, glass beads. The pony is for sale by the Doña Ana Arts Council, with the proceeds to benefit the historic Rio Grande Theatre. To date, none of the bids for it have met the minimum allowable for sale. The pony will remain on display near the main reception desk of the Doña Ana County Government Center until it changes ownership. Caballo de Las Cruces was designed by local artist Julienne Hadfield. The beading process took more than 4,000 hours to complete by a dedicated group of more than 100 community volunteers. The pony was designed to honor Las Cruces and the surrounding area.

Also on semi-permanent display is “The Gift” by New Mexico artist David Linn. “The Gift” is on loan from the New Mexico Arts Council’s Art in Public Places program. The painting is hung downstairs near the central elevators.

The public is invited to tour the art exhibits both upstairs and downstairs at any time during normal county business hours. The Permanent Collection is augmented by a downstairs art exhibit featuring the work of students within the Las Cruces and Gadsden districts. The student artwork changes twice annually, in the months of February and October.

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Reporters seeking more information or interviews may call county Public Information Director Jess Williams at (575) 525-5801.